Any chance of having Meshtastic operating on Raspberry Pico W (Wi-Fi + Bluetooth) together with Waveshare Pico-LoRa daughterboard ?
Looks like other project has this hardware platform up and running.
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That exact combination of hardware is being worked on by a couple of the developers. I believe it’s been successfully booted but issues initializing the sx1262 due to issues upstream that are being worked out currently.
Also, just because another project like SoftRF has support for hardware, doesn’t mean Meshtastic will. They’re different projects, with different focuses, for different people. Just keep that in mind.
Same question for the REYAX RYLR998 with a direct connection to a Raspberry Pi or a USB port through a level shifter. See https://github.com/flengyel/RYLR998-LoRa for an example of working code–it must be modified for Meshtastic. I have not tried the code with a Pico.
RadioLib (our upstream radio library) requires SPI radios.
Thank you—the REYAX RYLR998 and 993-Lite use AT commands. The RadioLib: Universal wireless communication library for embedded devices repository looks like the place to intervene.
Needs to be SPI, AT / UART is not supported.
Then I won’t use RadioLib.
Can’t really be uncoupled from meshtastic is a key part of the firmware.
Are you a contributor to the Meshtastic software project?
I am, I wrote the iOS app and am a member of the LLC.
OK, thank you–that’s good to know. I’m an extra-class amateur radio operator and a programmer. I’m running a Meshtastic mesh with a station G1 and two Meshenger text messenger radios. I have a few REYAX RYLR998 and RYLR993-Lite modules programmed to send text messages to each other that I would like to join the mesh. That means implementing the Meshtastic protocol, or enough of it to send and receive text message payloads. What is the position of Meshtastic LLC on forking the code to do this?
The code is GPL3, nothing stopping you from making a personal fork. Can’t use the trademark. I do think you are substantially underestimating the effort to make UART radios work with radiolib, they have explicitly excluded UART radios Support of chips connected via UART · Issue #664 · jgromes/RadioLib · GitHub
Probably much more efficient to just buy a couple of supported radios, has been every time someone has suggested this before.
Thank you for the RadioLib UART support issue thread. As I wrote,
Then I won’t use RadioLib.
There is no question of modifying a hardware abstraction layer for SPI-only devices. I have no interest in the Meshtastic trademark and would not use it.
I’m interested in implementing enough of the Meshtastic protocol so that my devices will join the mesh and can exchange text messages. Is the mesh protocol documented, or is the code the primary source for the protocol?
Taking out radio lib is not really an option at this point, SPI radios are superior. I would just buy supported modules.
That’s not relevant to my technical question. I want to implement the Meshtastic protocol for specific REYAX devices. Is the protocol documented? The REYAX devices can send and receive LoRa packets. I see no reason they cannot join a Meshtastic mesh if they speak the same protocol. I am not interested in supporting Android or iOS clients. I am not interested in AES encryption. I am only interested in sending and receiving packets that can be understood by the mesh, enough to support text messaging. I am not looking to integrate or extend RadioLib.
UPDATE: I am not asking the Meshtastic developers to do anything or support hardware outside the existing design. I am interested in the protocol. I now understand that the first place to look is the Meshtastic broadcast algorithm, then protobufs. My software prioritizes receiving LoRa packets, responding to AT commands, sending AT commands, and transmitting, in that order. I am not looking for any of this to be accepted in the Meshtastic software distribution or for the REYAX RYLR998 to be listed among the supported devices. I am doing my own experiments.
The latest release contains firmware for the Raspberry Pi Pico + Waveshare SX1262 LoRa Hat where at least basic messaging via serial (WebUI or CLI) works. It’s not extensively tested yet so there might be bugs.
Same holds for RAK11310 hardware (which is a combination of a RP2040 with SX1262).
There is not yet any Bluetooth or Wi-Fi functionality for the Pico W version.
@GUVWAF Thanks for this–I might try the pico firmware.
I concede all points @garth made. There is hardly any overlap between the Meshtastic presets and the REYAX RYLR998 LoRa parameters anyway, and the start bytes are different. I give up!
Make sure to use a more recent firmware (e.g. the latest beta) than the one I linked above. There were some stability issues that are now fixed. In my experience it works well, just that BLE and Wi-Fi support is still left to be implemented.
Are there any firmware installation instructions for the Raspberry Pi Pico setup? I can assemble the hardware. Just needing to know if I just only connect the USB and flash firmware via CLI or is there more software required? Thanks!
You can follow the instructions for drag & drop to flash the firmware: Drag & Drop nRF52 & RP2040 Firmware Updates | Meshtastic
Just FYI, Wi-Fi support has just been added for the Pico W. Latest alpha release has initial support, the upcoming release will be more stable.
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